F1 2014's plot thickens on day two

Yesterday, the 2014 Formula 1 season was an amorphous blob, an ill-defined apparition of the year that is to come.

The lack of storyline was the storyline as teams struggled to troubleshoot minor problems and battled to get their cars running for more than a few laps at a time.

For months, everyone was told the first day of testing would be one of very brief runs, red flags and long periods of work behind closed doors in the garage. Many then reacted with surprise and disgust when the first day of running was one of very brief runs, red flags and long periods of work behind closed doors in the garages...

But today, there was some genuine meat on the bones for everyone to get their teeth into. The plot is thickening.

Today was not about tales of catastrophic nose jobs, supposedly droning engines (they aren't, by the way) and slow bicycle races. On Wednesday at Jerez, F1 2014 started to take shape in the south of Spain, forming the plotlines that will potentially run through the next 10 months.

Glance at today's timing sheets for embryonic story number one. Ignore the laptimes, they are not especially significant, but instead look to the laps-completed column.

Jerez day two report and results

In fourth place sits Nico Rosberg, with 97 laps completed. The most on day two of testing last year, with a well-known, proven engine and an evolutionary car was 101 laps by Sauber. Mercedes' mileage today wasn't in the script and several rival teams would probably be satisfied if they managed that many laps over the whole four days at the current rate.

Rosberg didn't expect to have so much mileage to talk about © XPB

"There will be a lot of red flags, I can guarantee that," Mercedes executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe told AUTOSPORT before the test. "We are working as hard as we can and as diligently as we can to make sure that we have fewer red flags than anyone else."

Mercedes has caused a red flag, for Lewis Hamilton's Turn 1 shunt yesterday after a front-wing failure. But beyond that, the Silver Arrow has hit the mark better than any other team so far.

Rosberg is a shrewd, intelligent and diligent driver who has immersed himself in the detail and the donkey-work of the 2014 project since well before the chequered flag fell on the '13 season. He's also clever enough not to get too excited and revel in his car's relative reliability despite, in his own words, "smiling" about progress so far.

"I'm not looking at the others at the moment, I'm just looking at ourselves," was his summary shortly after getting out of the car. But there is no doubt that he has reason to be happy about life even though it's still too early to bet the house on a Mercedes title triumph.

The second storyline is something of a pre-season testing tradition. There's usually one team in trouble, and a glance at the bottom of the timing screens tells you everything you need to know. Sebastian Vettel: eight laps completed, 14 seconds off the pace.

The laptime itself couldn't be more meaningless, but anyone anticipating a completely seamless shift from Red Bull's dominance under the last rules package into this era has been given a big shock.

But while the Red Bull-in-trouble plot will please the baffling and vocal numbers who have failed to notice quite how brilliantly Vettel has driven in recent years, effectively helping to make the best car even better, there is a third, more compelling, related storyline.

This third tale is of Renault's troubles. There is confidence the difficulties can be fixed, and quickly enough to allow significant running over the rest of the week. This will be one of the storylines of tomorrow.

The vast swarm of journalists that besieged Renault head of trackside operations Remi Taffin's press call after the session proves that this is where everyone feels there is the potential for the big story of testing.

McLaren wowed with its suspension concept © XPB

Then there is the McLaren sub-plot, which is our fourth storyline.

Against a backdrop of the return of Ron Dennis to active duty overseeing the racing side of the company on a more regular basis, which was thrown into sharp focus by the announcement earlier today that Eric Boullier has, as expected, joined McLaren, there was a huge amount of interest in the design of the MP4-29's suspension.

As the car was launched digitally, with carefully-controlled angles, and then did not so much as emerge from the garage yesterday, this was the first time these 'blockers' on the rear suspension appeared.

Every season, there is some design concept at the first test that creates a lot of attention. But more newsworthy is what this says about McLaren. Suddenly, with one innovation, the effectiveness of which has yet to be proven publicly (but it is an ingenious solution), the impression is that the team means business.

AUTOSPORT's technical expert Gary Anderson even suggested it might prove to be McLaren's "secret weapon". But he also added the caveat that this was on the proviso it worked, so whether the blockers are still on the car once the racing starts will give a good indication of whether McLaren could become a good- or bad-news story in 2014.

Storyline number five is more of a sleeper hit: Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen's return inevitably grabbed the attention yesterday and when he stopped on his first lap and brought out the red flag, some anticipated a gloomy day for the Scuderia.

But after completing decent mileage on day one and day two, things are looking solid enough for Ferrari. The F14 T has run relatively reliably, Raikkonen has finished first and then second in the irrelevant timesheets and technical director James Allison was as content as might be expected after two days running when he faced the press this afternoon.

Needless to say, these plotlines are vague. The characters, although familiar, are half-formed and their place in the narrative has not been set. Effectively, pre-season testing is the pilot episode for the epic that everyone hopes will be the 2014 season.

Now, the storylines will move on and gradually crystalise. Tomorrow, all eyes will be on the lap count of the Renault teams, particularly Red Bull. With a solid day of running, the Red Bull-Renault-in-trouble storyline will be blown out of the water.

After all, there's always something else, because this is Formula 1.